What do Michelin-starred chefs and corporate communications have in common?

“Reduce” is a word with fairly negative connotations. Not so in cooking. One of the prized arts of a star chef is “reduction”, the process of thickening and intensifying the flavour of, for example, a delicious red wine sauce.

What does this have to do with communications? Many businesses try to explain what they do by detailing their products and services, then providing figures on, for example, how many people they employ, how many countries they operate in, or how much money they make. 

The result is a sort of corporate shopping list that is not only internal-facing, but also tends to send the reader to sleep. Examples abound but this description from a large healthcare provider comes to mind:

“X supplies medical gases, home healthcare services, hygiene products, medical equipment and specialty ingredients. In over 30 countries around the world, X influences the lives of more than 1 million patients at home and serves over 7,500 hospitals and clinics.”

How, then, to use reduction to intensify the flavour of your corporate communications? And why would you want to?

First of all, even very smart people have a short attention span. So whether you’re speaking to someone standing in front of you, or writing for the web, it’s useful to know how to get your core idea across in a couple of sentences.

Secondly, the process involved in boiling down a message to its essential flavours helps you know what you’re really selling, who you’re selling it to and why they’re buying it. This in turn shapes everything you will say about the brand or product.

So here’s a quick recipe for achieving a tasty reduction:

1) Jot down the answers to some key questions: What is the “problem” your business

solves? How exactly does your business address this problem? What is the purpose? Who is your primary audience? What’s your competitive advantage? What evidence do you have to back up these claims? What will the world look like if you achieve your vision?

2) Take your notes – you will probably have a side or so of A4 – and use the same structure to write out a long version of your “core story” – the essence of who you are and what you do. Cut out words, repetitions, and some stats. Your first draft of this might be around a page.

3) Turn up the heat: look at what you’ve written. How much is repetition, or waters down what you’re trying to say? Cut out words, some stats, flabby turns of phrase.

4) Repeat step 3.

5) Repeat step 3 again.

What are you aiming for? Ideally under 100 words, and if you can do one sentence, with under 25 words, so much the better. Bear in mind though, that this may not be possible: there’s a point at which reduction sends you into dangerous territory. At this point it’s useful to apply the sausage factory test, which I wrote about in a previous post: you may have a snappy sounding strapline, but could it also apply to your competitor, or indeed a company in another industry entirely?

For inspiration, GE does a good job. I’ll leave you with their take on healthcare. At under 80 words, it does an exemplary job of saying what GE does, where, and why:

“GE is constantly working to make the world a healthier place by supplying the healthcare technology that saves nearly 3,000 lives every day. Our focus is on helping medical professionals make an earlier, more accurate diagnosis of disease and then better equipping them to treat it. We’re also designing the tools that make healthcare available in even the most remote parts of the world. Anywhere there is a need for better healthcare tools, we are there.”

Happy cooking!